Which Mana Rocks Do You Put In Your Commander Deck?

[Music] foreign [Music] welcome back to EDH deck building I am your host demo and I am going to be ranking all of the matter rocks for the commander format in this video it's actually something I'm kind of surprised I've never done before I've never really made a video just talking about Mana rocks obviously I've covered that topic quite a bit in other videos and it is really important to building decks obviously I mean even Decks that ramp really well like those green decks are going to be playing Mana Rock so it is a very important topic to discuss and I'm doing it particularly now because I made a video last week that talked about you know five artifacts that I don't play anymore and in particular mind Stone and Warren Power Stone to Mana rocks that I no longer play anymore and I sort of inadvertently got into a discussion there with myself about you know I started ranking the the Mana rocks the two Mana value manora and and going into the order of which I put them in my decks and of course I had a lot of people commenting on their order and you know a lot of people didn't like that I don't really play mind Stone anymore it's still a good card and I thought well why not actually go and rank them all what is the actual order for me anyway right this is my own personal order I will be going over the two Mana three mana and four Mana rocks I will be doing them all by Mana value I think that's important obviously if you start ranking all the Mana rocks all the ones that are cheap are going to be towards the top of the list right so I'll be doing them separately two three and four and obviously for that reason I won't be talking about the zeros or the ones I don't think there's any point in getting into that discussion as we all know soul ring just goes in every deck if you play it I don't if you play soul ring it just goes on all your commander decks it's it's the most Auto include card in the entire format and then of course Mana Crypt and you know getting into the discussion with all of the zero and one Mana rocks is kind of pointless because we all know the really powerful are they even casual some people will say yes some people will say no I will just say there are some I guess traditionally busted Mana rocks on this list that just happen to be in those two and three Mana value slots and I will be talking about them and I will get into a little bit more of that as I do of course there's a lot to cover in this video so let's get right to it all right starting out the two Mata Rock slots and I'm going in from one to ten here sort of in reverse order of what I normally do I think it's probably the best way to do it and the reason why is because if you're making a deck that's what you're going to start with and then you're going to work your way down the line depending on how many Mana rocks you wouldn't put in your deck right obviously Arcane Signet it's the most popular card in the entire format outside of soul ring the Mana rocks are really you know if you look at the most popular cards in in the format on like EDH Rec a lot of Mana rocks in there right obviously they get played a lot in the format not really much to say about Arcane segment again it's just just like with soul ring it's an auto include I I think that they should have made this enter the battlefield tapped it would have made a lot more fair the fact that it's just two Mana ads men have essentially any color and comes into play untapped not really much to say of course it's number one on on the two Mana value slot next up for me is ornithopter Paradise that's right two Mana artifact creature thopter O2 with flying and Taps to add one man of any color so first of all you have a two Mana value Rock which is great that's what mostly people lean towards now and it's adding one man of any color so it's already in my opinion almost as good as Arcane Signet the only downside I guess there's two downsides here and maybe this is why people don't play it downside number one is it because it's a creature it it can't be tapped immediately right and I don't find that to be as much of a downside I know people really like their Mana rocks to come into play untapped but for me I don't usually you know especially on turn two right almost always on turn two you play that two Mana rock you know I'll play my arcane gonna turn two and I don't use it anyway so the fact that it's coming into play on tap isn't that big of an advantage for me so it's not that big of a downside for ornithopter paradise and of course the other downside is it's because it's a creature it you're going to lose it to those board wipes I mean no one's ever going to use spot removal on it but you might lose it to a board wipe that's not great I agree artifact creatures are very susceptible to removal in the format no question but for me what I've noticed playing this card and of course I've been playing it for years now is becomes more of an upside than a downside the fact that your Mana rock is also a creature is more upside than downside because of course I got a blocker it's a flying blocker it's actually a great blocker so on turn eight I draw it off the top I don't need a Mana Rock but having a flying blocker is nice in any creature theme it's an advantage I can use it as a sack fodder for if I'm in a sack deck if I'm in any artifact creature tribal deck it's going to be the best Mana Rock for sure even better than an Arcane Signet in that situation so for me the the fact that it's a creature is more upside than downside and two Mana Rock does any man have any color I think it's the second best two Mana value Rock in the format next up we have a commander staple for a long long time had just been reprinted in March of the machine Commander said I believe felware Stone of course two Mana Rock and adds one man of any color that a land and opponent controls could produce I actually like this card a lot less back in the day when I first started playing because you saw a lot more mono colored decks back then there wasn't a lot of people playing three and four and five color decks so it was you know you ran into the situation a lot where you would play this and if you were playing like a two color deck or maybe even a three color deck the chances that you get all three colors you want wasn't great nowadays though five color combination of course is the most popular in the entire format so it is likely that you're gonna sit down at a table and an opponent has a five color deck so you're good to go right it's likely I would say in a lot of situations that you're going to be adding all the colors that you need in your commander deck if you're playing a felwar stone and if you're playing a five color deck and you're only getting three colors off of this that's pretty good too right I would say this is number three for me next up for me is liquid metal torque two Mana Rock adds a colorless and tap to turn Target non-land permanent into an artifact to lend a turn I just love that ability and it's so usable in so many different decks you know when I first saw this card in modern Horizons 2 was very high on my list first of all two matter rock that comes into play untapped and you can use it right away is great it adds colorless so you do have to be a little careful there but as I said in this video and I've stuck to it any monograin mono red or mono white deck this is an auto include for me because those colors remove artifacts really well and it's very easy for you if you're casting your Vandal blast to turn your opponent's elishnorn or whatever into an artifact and that's going to get lost to the Vandal blast as well I love the opportunity to do that and then there's also some other Shenanigans you can get into I just talked about this in my Sandwell all underwhelming Commander's deck because that Commander interestingly enough you can turn it into an artifact so that when it attacks it prevents damage to itself and of course liquid metal torque is gonna do that so there's also some neat Shenanigans you can get into there as well I just love this card in the format I'm so happy it exists it's one of my favorites and it again we're talking about the cards I'm going to be putting in my deck here that's what this ranking is and this is a card that I'm gonna almost assuringly put in my deck especially if I'm playing those red green and white decks next up for me number five is thought vessel two Mana Rock and adds a colorless you have no Maxim hand size of course is the big reason why people play this and this originally came out I believe in Commander 2015 and immediately became a commander staple because people really like that no maximum hand size thing and I would imagine that people probably like it more than it's necessary you know this is one of those cards that you really got to think do I have more than a maximum hand size am I having more than seven cards in my hand a lot I do have one one deck I think maybe two Decks that I'm playing this in because those are decks I think both my mono blue decks have the potential to draw a whole bunch of cards at once and so there it actually matters but that's it I think this card is overplayed but it is of course very good because it's a two Mana Rock again that enters the battlefield and you can tap it right away I probably wouldn't play you know any Mana rock that is adding only colorless Mana I'm only going to play in a mono color deck or possibly a two color deck if I really need that ability rate if I really want to use that liquid metal Torx ability or if I really want the no Maxim hand size I will play in a two color deck but usually I stick to the mono color decks with those rocks and I happen to play a lot of mono color decks right A lot of people probably looking at my list and going oh man liquid metal torque is terrible only that's colorless Mana because they play five and four and maybe three color decks and so in those decks it's not as good for me right this is my ranking I play Only In fact one and two color decks I don't even have a three color deck so the Mana rocks that are adding colorless Mana that's less of a downside for me right all right next up is grim monolith one of these busted really expensive cards it is a two Mana Rock so I do have to talk about it here and this is where I put it on the list of course it's a two Mana artifact doesn't untap during your untapped step Taps to add three colorless and you can pay 40 on tap it of course it's busted and that's why it's expensive but at the same time you know when I was doing this list I was like I guess I gotta talk about this but where am I going to put it and I put it here because of course it it does have a very high ceiling but at the same time it just doesn't work in a lot of decks you know a lot of these Mana rocks like Grim monolith for example I think of it as a ritual effect more than anything a lot of times when I see people play these cards and I guess Mana Vault would be very similar in that regard it comes into play Early in the game you use it right away to get your commander real quicker and then you just leave it you don't ever untap it I see that all the time people play cards like that and they just never untap them because they want to be using their math for something else you know it'll sit there tap for like seven turns and then on like turn seven or eight they'll finally untap it because they got lots of Mana to use but also their commanders died a few times and they need that Mana to then cast it again that's usually how I see them used they're good like Grim monolith is good it's a great card obviously I would say it's a lot better in a cedh game where you're just gonna cast it and then you know when you use it you're gonna probably just close out the game right away but I think in a casual commander game you know most casual Commander decks this is just okay it's not super great it's sort of like a ritual effect coming in at number seven is the Talisman series and of course we have one of these for every two color combination they're two Mana rocks that tap to add a colorless and can also tap to add Mana of two different colors and then deal damage to you and this is probably the best series I think for a two color pairing Right comes in a play on tap you can use it right away you have the option of using color this Mana if you don't want to take the damage and then if you need the colored Mana you can do that I like the versatility of it for me this is the best two color man of rock series of course we have a few of them you know for me this is where I'm going to go on a two color deck first if I'm making a two color deck this is one of the first Mana rocks you know I'm gonna put in Arcane segment and then I'm going to put a probably a thought through a paradise and then I'm gonna probably go to this next for a two color deck next up this is where I'm putting mine Stone two Mana artifact tap add a colorless pay one and tap sacrifice mind Stone draw card and again like I talked about in that video for me I'm I'm more likely going to pay a liquid metal torque especially in the colors you know if you think about those colors that traditionally need help drawing cards it's not necessarily the case anymore but red and white decks for sure played mind Stone a lot because you know they need a little help drawing cards that's less of a case now and in both of those cases liquid metal torque for me is better because both of those colors remove artifacts really really well so I would prefer that upside right I have a two Mana rock that adds colorless Mana what's the other upside for me a liquid metal Torx upside is way better in a white or red deck than is maybe I'm going to sacrifice this and draw a card later in the game I will say though this is good in a situation where you might be wanting to sacrifice artifacts like an Oscar deck or something like that this gets better it always gets better in situations like that get it back from my gr I get two copies back from my graveyard with my Oscar's ability later in the game so obviously cards like this are going to get better in certain situations but seeing how far this is down on my list obviously that's why I don't play it anymore all right coming in at number nine this is the Signet series and of course these are all two Mana combination rocks again two Mana artifacts of course and you have to pay one and tap it to add you know those two color combinations and these are outside of soul ring and Arcane Signet the most popular Mana rocks in the entire format I've never been super in love with them I only play these in two color decks and they're not even my first choice again I prefer the Talisman series they give you the colors you need which is good I don't love that you have to put Mana into them you know the fact that they come into play untapped is not usually that great because if I play this on turn two I can't use it anyway because of course I have to put Mana into it I don't love that it gets a little difficult tapping your mat on I see people do it all the time especially if you're in a three color deck and you have a couple of these in play they're like okay tap this one and maybe I'll tap that oh wait no untap that and I want to use it and they're doing a whole lot of figuring out what's going on so that they can get the right Mana into their Mata pool and then they want to cast something else later in the turn it gets pretty complicated because you have to put Mana into them and then they're giving you exactly those two colors of Mana they're still good I'm still gonna play these in all my two color decks right in an azorious deck I'm gonna play my Azaria Signet because it is a pretty decent Mana Rock in that two color combination that's the only place I play them though and coming in at number 10 is the Diamond Series freeze again another series that was played a whole lot back in the day and really has fallen off again for me I used to play them all the time they're all two matter rocks then enter the battlefield tap and tap to add a specific color of Mana this kind of was the gold standard for a long time right these were really popular in the format because if you were for sure playing a mono color deck of this color combination or of this color you absolutely were playing it and then you know maybe two color you would play it as well these were really popular still get played quite a bit they just got reprinted in the Baldur's Gate Commander set so people are still playing them have certainly fallen off a lot though again you just compare this to Arcane signal and it's like so even in a mono color deck Arcane signet's gonna be better than a charcoal diamond right it's kind of sad that's why I kind of wish that at the very least they would have had our King signal coming to play tapped but nevertheless here it is number 10 for me haven't played these in a long time they are still playable for sure I think they're all right but I'm just not playing them anymore because there's so many better options all right we are moving on to the three Mana rocks now and first up for me and this might come as a little bit of a surprise for people is relic of Legends this I think is the best three Mana Rock right now of course it's three man it's an artifact and Taps to add one Mana of any color and it's pretty difficult to put a three Mana Rock in your deck if it's not adding Mana of any color you know that's sort of the the standard for putting a three Mana Rock in your deck although I do have quite a few on this list that aren't doing that but obviously I will talk about the specific reasons why this guy also Taps an untapped legendary creature you control to N1 Mana of any color and of course this came out last year in Domino United and I have had the chance to use it quite a bit and I like it a lot it is almost always going to be tapping for two Mana if you have a legendary creature like your commander that you don't want to be doing anything else with right if you want to be attacking with your commander all the time obviously it's not nearly as good if you want to be tapping your commander for its ability it's not not as good but if you just have a commander like say in my rain deck where I just recently played this and I just found man it's just an extra Mana because I don't really use my rain for anything it just sits there and now I'm just using my commander as a Mana dork and even Summoning Sickness doesn't apply here as well because of the way the Billy is worded and then oh what do you know I have in a zammy in play as well which I have in that deck so now I got even more Mana now I can start tapping those for Mana as well so if you just happen to have other legendary creatures in play now you're getting a whole lot more Mana this is my favorite three Mana Rock in the format right now and you know again now I can also get into the situations where maybe I'm playing my kingma car deck where I actually want my commander to be tapped because there are some decks like that as well where this gets extra good this is my favorite three Mana Rock in the format now my second favorite three Mana Rock in the format is still Coalition Relic I still really like this card a lot three meta artifact Taps to add one man of any color and you can tap it to put a charge counter on it and at the beginning of your pre-comment made remove all charge counters from it and add one man of any color for each charge account remove this way so the reason I like this a lot and it still gets played a fair amount in the commander format I mean it was an absolute Auto include for almost every deck back in the day obviously it's fallen off a lot but the reason why it was played so much is because it has the potential again to add two Mana but more importantly it has the potential to add two Mana of different colors which you really don't see with Mana rocks at all I can have the counter on it right so it comes into play untapped and I can put a counter on it right away then on my next turn I can have the counter removed on my pre-combat main phase and add it one Mana so let's say I had a green mana and then I can tap it to add a completely different color of Mana it adds two Mana of different colors which is great obviously the other way it's way way better than in certain decks is with proliferate right if you're in any proliferate deck I still think this is probably your best choice as a Mana Rock because because of course you can proliferate those charge counters so now you're really going to be going to town with how much Mana you can add here really really great option for a deck like that all right moving on to my number three Mana Rock in the three Mana value slot and it's Cursed Mirror that's right a color specific card the first one I'm talking about here two in a red artifact so of course this can only go in a red deck you tap to add a red Mana so if it isn't a red deck it's giving you the color you need at least one of the colors you need as it enters the battlefield you may have it become a copy of any creature on the battlefield until end of turn except it has haste I talked about this in the best cards from c21 when it came out because I thought it was the one of the best cards from that set I think it might be the best I I think it's my favorite card from c21 I really like this card a lot I played as much as I can it's just such a unique interesting card for one reason because it is a Mana rock that is copying a creature that in itself is kind of unique but then on top of that that you know it's just giving you free value I just love the fact that it can come into play and actually again Works extra good in a theme where maybe you want to be copying your own creatures uh you know maybe you have creatures with etbs that you want to be copying if my opponent has a creature with an ATB if I'm in a model red deck and my opponent has a wreck sage and of course I have a heck of a time getting enchantments off the field in my mono red deck I can copy that wreck Sage get the ETB and destroy my opponent's smothering tide that's my favorite part about this card is enabling opportunities like that three Mana Mata rocks not great but the potential upside here is massive and that's why I have this so high for my three Mana value rocks next up is patriarch seal three Mana artifact of course and Taps to add one Mana of any color as you would expect from most three men at Mata rocks and again the potential upside for me here is so high that that's why I have this at number four pay one and tap to untap Target legendary creature you control that can be really really good in a lot of decks and of course untapping your commander which is what you're normally going to be doing here is you know always going to be a good thing regardless of what you might be doing with your commander just I attack with my commander and you know I have a big scary creature as a commander now I can untap it and then use it as a Blocker on my opponent's turn that can be good right but more so there's just so many commanders out there that you want to be tapping to use their abilities lots and lots of commanders have fantastic activated abilities and this is just such a great fit where now I can untap my commander and use it again right there's so many commanders in the format that want to be doing that and that's why I have this so high on my list I actually don't even think I have this in a deck right now because I don't have a commander like that but I'm trying to be impartial here and because there are so many commanders like myself I actually have put this in probably like 10 decks already but making decks for my Channel or for other people I don't personally have in a deck but I think it is a fantastic card in the commander format alright next up this is where I'm putting chromatic Lantern of course a long time Commander staple because it's so great at Mana fixing three mana mana Rock lens you control have tap add one man of any color and of course it also Taps to add one man of any color so really one of the best cards out there for Mana fixing once it comes down it's going to make sure that your lands tap for any color which means you're not going to have to worry about Mana fixing at all as long as it's on the table really this card I don't think is played at all outside of five color decks even in five color decks I don't know if it's played as much as it used to for sure because there are other options for doing this it was just an absolute Auto include if you were in a five color deck before still is pretty important I think and does see a lot of Play Still again this is a card for me that I've never played but I'm trying to be impartial here and it obviously is still a very important Commander staple so that's where I'm putting it on my list coming in at number six is skyclave Relic three Mana artifact kicker 3 and has indestructible when skyclave Relic enters the battlefield if it was kicked great two tapped tokens that are copies of skyclave Relic and add one Mana of any color so a little bit of an homage to dark Steel Ingot which of course is not going to be on my list here at all that is definitely a Mana rock that was a commander staple for a long time that I don't know who I obviously some people are playing it if you specifically want an indestructible Rock in your deck obviously skyclave Relic is just a strict upgrade there and this I think is good enough to see play again I don't have this in any decks myself I think it's good enough to see play in a few decks and the reason why I like it is because it scales right I like cards that scale as the game goes on obviously rap spells and Mana rocks get kind of a lot worse as the game goes on this it can be an improvement as the game goes on because you know I could play this turn three and it adds one man of any color but if I draw it on turn six now I can pay six Mana here and I will get three of these in play which is pretty darn good that's not bad for six Mana that's why I like it because it scales nicely as the game goes on I think it's a pretty decent three Mana value Rock coming in at number seven in my three Mana value slot is basalt monolith that's right this is a three metal Rock and of course I gotta mention it because it is really really powerful of course it's the three Mana artifact and doesn't untap during your untapped step Taps to add three colorless and you have to pay three to untap it so again just like with grim monolith pretty much everything I said there applies here this is really good in certain situations and in particular this one is good in the combo situation I guess you can very easily slot this into your zerta deck and it will go infinite of course because the untap only cost one Mana so you can just create infinite Mana that way there is a lot of combo potential here for sure but again it kind of just fits in certain scenarios even though this is considered to be a busted card in the history of the game and I know people think well you're putting skyclave Relic at a Basalt monolith in a casual commander deck I would almost always rather have Sky Cleveland Relic you know first of all the adding of any color is important this is only adding colorless mana and again I see this card get played it comes down and this is not even that much of a ritual effect because of course it costs three and adds three so it doesn't really do anything until you use it the following turn it's not like a lot of those other ones that you can use it right away to get your commander out You Gotta Wait a turn because you're not up anything if you use it right away and then again A lot of times I'll see people use this and it'll just stay tapped they're not going to use it again for a long long time so it's good it certainly is good that's why I have it on my list I just don't think it's as good as most people think it is coming in at number eight for me on my three Mana value list is of course a commander staple forever Commander sphere three Mana artifact Taps to add one Mana of any color of your Commander's color identity and you can sacrifice Commander's fear to draw a card I still think this is pretty good I do have this in my Gerard deck and of course the reason why is because I actually am in sort of a artifact recursion theme there where it actually works and a lot of times I will have my Goblin Welder in play and maybe I'll have a artifact that I want to sacrifice so I will sacrifice my commanders for the draw card and then I can swap right and get my Commander's fear back so it is really good in situations like that outside of that like I don't know if I would be playing this again the card draw is not really necessary in those colors that desperately need card draw so it still sees a ton of play I would imagine this isn't a whole lot of decks still for sure but for me all the amount of rocks that I mentioned before this I would probably play over Commander sphere again unless I'm in that specific situation where I want to be sacrificing artifacts next up for me again another color specific one is crowded Crypt I like this one a lot two in a black artifact Taps to add a black whenever creature you control dies put a corpse counter on crowded Crypt so obviously that slots nicely into a whole lot of decks and again just like with Sky clay Relic I like this card because it scales nicely but for a different reason pay for black black and tap sacrifice crowded Crypt create a tutu black zombie creature token with decade for each corpse counter on crowded Crypt I really like that a lot and again if you're in that deck that is sacrificing creatures a lot of course making a whole bunch of token creatures is great if you're in the zombie theme it also is a nice fit you know I would give this consideration for a Zombie Deck as well because of course you are making zombies I like it better in the sacrifice theme I have this in my kinzu deck for that reason because I'm doing a whole lot of you know creatures entering the battlefield and then dying and all that kind of stuff so it very easily I'm putting counters on this and later in the game if I have the opportunity you know I mean it is a Mana Rock that's what I'm using it for I'm using it as a Mana Rock it's in the Mana Rock slot but there is the potential that on turn like eight or nine now I have like 12 or 15 encounters on this thing I can sacrifice it on my opponent's turn create a huge Army of zombies to help me close out the game that's why I like it a lot it can be a nice alternate version of helping you close out the game if you're looking for that in one of your decks maybe give this one a try if you haven't seen it before and coming in number 10 in the three Mana value slot is Warren powerstone I still think it is a very playable card in the commander format of course enters the battlefield tap and Taps to add two colorless it's decent again as I talked about in that video I got like 12 of these sitting in my card box right now because I used to just put it in all my decks my mono color decks I think for sure I played it in and then a lot two color decks as well it is the fair version of soul ring but again as you can see I have it at number 10 here because depending on the situation again always you know if I'm not playing a red or black deck I'm not going to play Cursed Mirror or crowded Crypt so those are out so I guess in a mono white deck I might play this but you know looking at all the two Mana rocks I'm probably gonna put ahead of this and then the three Mana ones I have ahead of it as well it's likely I will never play this card again but I still think it's a pretty decent amount of rock in the format alright getting to the four mana mana rocks and I know a lot of people don't play a lot of three Mana rocks anymore so four of course why would you play those at all I think there's a lot of great ones here I did go pretty deep but I wanted to talk about 10 of them and I think there's some pretty great ones that will fit in Niche scenarios so Stone speaker Crystal for me is my number one for Mana value Rock that's the one that I'm gonna put in a deck first I think if I'm gonna put a four Mana Rock in my deck four Mana artifact Taps to add two color lists which of course you probably would expect from a four Mana Rock to add at least two mana and you can pay two and tap it and sacrifice it to Exile any number of Target players graveyards and draw a card so you'll get that card draw you get the replacement there I which I like and of course because you're sacrificing it again it fits in those artifact sacrifice themes but I really like the wording here of Exile any number of Target players graveyards it's a great way to Exile graveyards if you don't want your graveyard hit surprisingly there's not a ton a ways in the commander format to only hit your opponent's graveyards and not yours certainly not in a colorless option right scavenger grounds is one that I've always used but it's not great if you're in a deck where you want to keep your graveyard because of course it Exiles all graveyards Stone speaker crystal is really one of the best options there is in the format colorless options for I want to hit my opponent's graveyards but I don't want to hit mine and that's why I like it a lot and why it's at number one for me coming in at number two in the four Mana value slot is hedron archive Taps that two colorless of course and you can pay to and tap it sacrifice it and draw two cards so of course again it's just a great option there for I want that matter Rock that's going to add to mana and then later in the game when I you know maybe desperately need to refill my hand or I'm looking for answers I need to dig into my deck I can sacrifice and draw two cards again fits extra good in that sacrifice theme again I have this in my Gerard deck for that reason because I can reuse it over and over again it becomes a decent card draw option later in the game you can get some pretty good value off of it that's the only deck I'm currently playing in it again we're in the four Mana value slot here so not a lot of these Mana rocks are going to see a ton of play but I wanted to talk about the four Mana value rocks and there are some pretty good ones here coming in at number three Nick's Lotus for Mana legendary artifact Nick's Lotus enters the battlefield tapped tap choose a color add an amount of Mana of that color equal to your Devotion to that color so this does see a decent amount of play in the commander format of course again I probably would never play this outside of a mono colored deck I don't know if people do for me I have this in my avishon deck and it is pretty good you know this card funny enough is a lot like gaia's cradle where it can actually tap for zero man right a guy's cradle busted card of course but actually doesn't tap for Mana if you have no creatures the same is true here if your board's been completely wiped this Taps for nothing so it can be a big downside there but again just like guy's cradle has a huge ceiling and I very regular early will tap this for four or five Mana in my abishon deck and I very often need a lot of men and of course you're adding that color of Mano and a lot of times you will need specifically that color it is a pretty good format of value Rock for sure next up at number four another old school Commander staple thread Dynamo four Mana artifact Taps to add three colorless that is it so it's just giving you lots of colorless man of course comes into the battlefield untaps you can use it right away this is one for me that I've never actually used it is great no question I just have never actually put this in a deck before I talked about this in a video it is a great Mana Rock and again I'm trying to be impartial here this is a card I've never actually used although I still think it's a really good Mana Rock in the format and again getting back to Basalt monolith there is a card that is doing exactly what Fran Dynamo is it's tapping to add three colorless but it doesn't untap which is a really bad downside thread Dynamo only cost one more and Taps to add three colors and has no downside at all and I talk about the this in a casual commander game for me thrand Dynamo is way better than Basalt monolith way better it's always untapping you get to use it every single turn right so for me that's why I have Basalt Model S as low as I do and thread Dynamo I would way quicker put friend Dynamo in a deck than I would in fact I would rather put thread Dynamo in a deck than a grim monolith yeah Grim monolith is cheaper okay you can get it out faster but in a long form casual commander game I'm not gonna have to be untapping it all the time thran Dynamo is going to untap on its own I think it's way better coming in at number five is a brand new one and a card that I have not talked about on my Channel at all but I might going forward machine God's Effigy just came out in Brothers War a commander four Mana artifact you may have machine guns Effigy enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield except it's an artifact and has tap at a blue and Taps to add a blue so this is a Mana Rock and of course again it's color specific because we do have that blue pip there so you can only played in a blue deck which is unfortunate but I still think this is a really really great interesting card and the main reason why it's a super interesting card of course it is a clone effect which is great but the little part and brackets there the reminder text is the super important part of this card which is it's not a creature this will transform a creature into a straight up artifact it's not a creature which can be really really important for a lot of reasons and of course the big reason is you're going to avoid the creature board wipes of course I can copy my opponent's stuff as well right this enters the battlefield as a copy of any creature I can have this come into play and again I can copy my opponent's king Makara if I want to tap this for mana and then when it becomes untapped to get the Exile a creature there's a lot of neat Shenanigans you can get into again this is sort of the Blue version of Cursed Mirror in a way maybe even a better version I mean it does cost four so there's a lot of neat Shenanigans you can get into it for that reason I like it a lot coming in at number six in the four Mana value slot scepter of eternal glory for Mana legendary artifact Taps to add one Mana of any color that's not super great for a four Mana Rock however Taps to add three Mana of any color activate only if you control three or more lands with the same name so of course because we're doing lands of the same name that likely means you don't want to be playing this out of sight of a mono colored deck again I talked about this with endless Atlas where I'm like is anyone playing endless Atlas outside of a mono color deck because it doesn't seem great same is true here I probably would never play this outside of a mono colored deck I have this in one deck currently myself giving it a try there again of course a mono colored deck it's pretty good right a format of rock that is adding three Mana of any color is fantastic and likely if you play this on turn four in a mono color deck you will have the three lands of the same name so you can use it right away how many people are playing this card I honestly don't know seems like it's a decent amount of decks on EDH rack I think it's pretty good so that's why I put it on my list coming in at number seven is one that is really specific and towards the end of the four Mana value Raw you know obviously there's not a ton of formatted value Mana Rock so I'm getting very specific with what these cards are doing but they are still pretty good The Golden Throne four Mana legendary artifact again if you would lose the game instead Exile The Golden Throne and your life total becomes one that's pretty good definitely usable in any commander game also you can tap and sacrifice a creature to add three Mana of any combination of colors so of course for that reason this is a Mana Rock and works pretty darn good in any deck where you are sacrificing creatures a lot which of course there are a ton of those in the commander format but also if I'm in any deck where I'm just creating lots of creatures I think this would be a good fit you know if you have any commander that's just spitting out tokens on a regular basis and they're just like one ones they're not very good this is a great way to convert those one one tokens that are not super impactful into three Mana of any combination of colors which can be really really good so I think this is a pretty decent Mana Rock in the format coming in at number eight another one that I'm sure a lot of people are not very familiar with I wasn't at all in fact fact I didn't know what this car did when I was doing the research for this video and as I was reading I'm like hey actually this ain't bad servox Tome formata artifact when servox Tome enters the battlefield you take the initiative so it's doing the initiative thing which of course is the dungeon thing and the most important part about this and I will explain to everyone who isn't familiar with the initiative or isn't really using dungeons the most notable part about this is that the first room of the initiative is getting you a land which is pretty darn good and a whole lot of decks especially the ones that can't search for lands right Taps to add a colorless if you have the initiative at two colors instead so it's gonna tap for two colors right away which is pretty good there is a chance that you could lose the initiative and only tap for close which isn't great also though pay three tap Exile cards from the top of your library until you Exile a non-land card you may cast that card without paying its Mana cost activate only if you completed a dungeon so there is a chance you could get that this might work extra good in a deck where you're doing Exile tribal because of course that's what you're doing there with that ability obviously it works great in an initiative deck if you're doing that I think it's probably an auto include if you're doing that or any dungeons at all might be a great fit so I think it's a decent include in certain decks I'd say it's a slam dunk in a lot of decks and then a lot of other Decks that as well you might want to give it consideration coming in at number nine and we're definitely getting to the ones that are super Niche here empowered Auto generator for Mana artifact enters the battlefield tapped tap put a charge counter on impaired Auto generator add X-Men have any one color where X is the number of charge counters on empowered Auto generator and you know this again I would say I would probably never play this outside of a proliferate deck you know I've never played it myself in a proliferate deck it seems really really good because you can start proliferating those counters and of course this is going to start adding for an absolute ton of Mana outside of that I probably wouldn't play it I don't know if anyone is if you guys are playing this outside of a proliferate deck let me know I probably would never myself and closing out my Mana rocks this is the four Mana value slot and this is number 10 lava Brink blood Gates three in a red artifact Taps to add to Red so this is a four Mana rock that is tapping to add two Mana that's not bad and of course because it's red you can only play it in a red deck at the beginning of each player's up keep that player may put a doom counter on lava Brink floodgates or remove a doom counter from it then if it has three or more Doom counters on it sacrifice it when you do it deals six damage to each creature so it's kind of a board wipe on a Mana Rock which is pretty neat you know I've never played this myself I don't know if a lot of people have it certainly is an interesting card you don't see too many Mana rocks and this is the only one actually that are also board wipes it's a little political obviously your opponents can control this so that it never actually goes off I certainly would not put this in my deck if I was looking for a board wipe there are a lot better options for board wipes in red obviously it's just a neat card you know again could work on the proliferate theme because you could proliferate those counters if you want to get it off a lot faster I was going deep here for the four Mana value Rock slot let me know if you're playing this this card and how you're using it and how it's working out for you I've never actually seen it in a game seems like an interesting card and is decent you know I it's number 10 for me I thought I would give it a mention let me know if you're using it let me know in the comments below about all your opinions about my rankings of all of these again I wanted to do it in the Mana value slots because I thought that was important because of course your Mana curve with particularly Mana rocks can be really really important right it's ramp so getting your two Mana value rock out on turn two is going to be super important it's going to be more important than getting a four Mana value rock out that's why with the four Mana value slot I really went with ones that are doing specific things right they're giving you some added benefit to them as well let me know what you think of my ranking in the comments below but that is it for today and thanks for tuning in thank you

Channel: EDH Deckbuilding

Views: 24,581

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Id: ZU8H_aG2XRA

Length: 40min 7sec (2407 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023